There’s been scant word about director Wes Ball’s upcoming Planet of the Apes sequel, other than it will apparently continue the story began in 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The most recent chapter to that saga was director Matt Reeves’ 2017 masterpiece War for the Planet of the Apes, but with head ape Caesar dead, it appears likely his son Cornelius will have to carry on his father’s legacy. Which could mean the new sequel will be a reboot of Franklin Schaffner original 1968 film Planet of the Apes.
Apes fight for their survival in "War for the Planet of the Apes"
Let me also note that I specifically refer to this sequel as possibly rebooting the 1968 film, rather than being another adaptation of the 1963 novel La Planète des singes written by Pierre Boulle, which inspired Schaffner’s movie. The novel is extremely different from the movies it inspired, first and foremost in the fact that the events take place on another planet, not Earth, and the twist ending is therefore different as well. So, with so many Easter Eggs and references to the 1968 film, the modern trilogy seems destined to lead into a reboot of Schaffner’s original cinematic adaptation.
As a huge fan of the series, and especially of the most recent trilogy, I’m sad that Matt Reeves has departed but I’m so ecstatic to have him making Batman movies that I cannot shed many tears over his absence from the Apes franchise. So I’m happy to see what Ball does with the story.
I must admit, I assumed Disney would eventually continue this franchise (as well as the Alien franchise) as a streaming series on Disney+, not with more theatrical releases, and I still wonder if they might decide to make the sequel an exclusive for the streamer. It would make the CGI-heavy production cheaper in the long run, as either a set of several films, as a miniseries, or as an ongoing series.
Also, I want to go on record saying I don’t want to know too much about Ball’s film just yet, so I’m pleased they’ve kept a lid on most of the details beyond confirming it’s continuing the story began in the prior trilogy, and that it’s expected to release in 2023 or 2024 (I’m sure pandemic considerations play an important role in the final date, so it might be a while before we get clarity on that front).
But what we do know so far is enough to wet our appetite and spur a discussion about the ways in which things might progress going forward. If Caesar’s legacy will continue, as Ball has said, then that strongly hints that his son Cornelius and the larger plans for the apes to build their own society will be at the heart of the next movie.
One theory is that we might see the early beginnings of that society and how it transforms into the more authoritarian state that suppresses the truth about history and hunts any remaining humans for execution or used as slaves.
Or we might see a story set at a later point in the timeline, after the ape society has been fully established and Cornelius (whose name strongly suggests he’ll play a role similar to the Cornelius character in the 1968 film) is older and part of the government, and at the point when the Icarus spacecraft — which is mentioned as a mission to Mars in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and referenced in a later headline reading “Lost in space?” — returns to Earth.
I suspect the latter is the most likely approach for the sequel. The inclusion of the girl named Nova in War for the Planet of the Apes is a good indicator that a sequel will include elements from the 1968 story. The character is obviously the character of the same name from the 1968 movie, who becomes an eventual love interest for the human astronauts returning from space many years later.
In real time, Nova would be about 18 years old now, but if the film assumes many more years have passed and Cornelius is much older in the story, Nova might potentially be closer to 30 years old if she were to appear in the upcoming sequel.
The astronauts themselves were traveling to Mars, according to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, but became lost on the way somehow. If the ship suffered a malfunction, it’s possible they could’ve been stranded for a long time before finally returning to Earth around 20 or so years later to discover the other apes have taken over and humanity has devolved to a primitive state. That would mean the astronauts are aware they’ve returned to Earth, though, which might preclude the inclusion of any “twists” for them to discover.
Alternately, the astronauts might have encountered some strange phenomenon that makes them suspect they’ve returned to Earth in an alternate universe from their own, where other apes evolved into the dominant species while humans remained in a more primitive state. This would let them retain the false impression that they’re on a planet where evolution transpired differently, either until an ending reveal that they are in fact on their own Earth, or — better, I’d say, since the audience is already in on the secret from the start — maybe the astronauts can make the discovery around the midpoint of the film and the ending can include a decidedly different climactic reveal.
My personal opinion is that the astronauts should be testing some new form of propulsion that doesn’t work as expected, so the astronauts experience a brief time distortion and abort their mission, quickly returning to Earth. But the time distortion that seemed to take only seconds or minutes for them was in fact much longer, resulting in decades passing back on Earth. This way, the astronauts can be under the impression they either arrived on a different plant or went into some alternate reality where evolution resulted in other apes taking over the world.
Even in that scenario, I think the astronauts might still discover the secret earlier than in the 1968 film, allowing the remake to establish some different surprise to spring on us at the end. Or maybe it doesn’t need a twist at all, if the astronauts discover the secret midway through the story and instead of being treated as a twist it’s a suspicion the main character has all along and sets out to prove it, while the apes are determined to stop him from revealing it to their entire society.
The pieces are all in place now for the next chapter to return to the franchise roots. In that case, I would humbly suggest the title of the new film simply be what it’s been leading to all along — The Planet of the Apes.
I’ll be back with more info on the future of the Apes franchise as soon as any news is available, so stay tuned, dear readers!
